1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to garment storage and display devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Garments have long been stored on transverse rods in closets between laterally confining walls at the open face of which closet doors are typically mounted in sliding or swinging arrangement. Garments are suspended from the transverse clothes rack by means of hangers. Garments that remain in such conventional closets become dusty after even brief periods of storage. The opening and closing of closet doors creates turbulent air currents that carry dust and lint onto clothes in the closet. Since closets are frequently used for storage of articles other than garments hanging on the clothes rack, they are difficult to clean thoroughly, Each such article must be removed, dusted and the interior of the closet must be dusted with all articles removed in order for cleaning to be thorough. As a consequence, very typically there is a considerable interval between thorough cleanings of a conventional clothes closet. As a result, clothing garments stored in conventional closets have a tendency to accumulate dust and lint quite rapidly.
To maintain garments in a dust free condition, garment bags are sometimes employed. Such garments bags may be formed with rigid or semirigid roofs and floors, and with a flexible fabric covering extending therebetween. Typical garment bags have lengthwise openings designed to face outwardly toward the open face of a closet. These openings are usually equipped with zippers which can be closed to encapsulate garments within the bag and thereby protect them from dust. However, conventional garment bags of this type hinder the removal and replacement of clothes in the closet to a considerable extent. The zippers employed frequently become jammed and inoperable. Furthermore, the zippers often become snagged in the clothing stored in the garment bags. Also, it is difficult to satisfactorily arrange clothes on hangers within a garment bag for storage since the edges of conventional garment bags at the lengthwise garment bag opening tend to collapse against the hands of an individual inserted therein. A person must therefore utilize the backs of his or her forearms and wrists to hold the flexible edges of the garment bag open. This makes it very difficult to hang clothes in the garment bags in a manner which will avoid the creation of wrinkles in the garments. Also, it is quite uncomfortable to arrange clothes while reaching with one's arms fully outstretched into a garment bag located in a closet, although this is necessary with conventional garment bags.
Other garment storage arrangements have also been proposed, but none with any great public acceptance. One such arrangement involves a hanging garment bag or closet enclosure that is positioned at the back of a stairwell The hanging garment support is mounted on a track and can be rolled forward to a door at the top of the stairwell when it is desired to withdraw or replace clothing from the hanging closet. However, manipulating clothing at the top of a stairway is quite difficult, and is also hazardous from the standpoint of safety. Furthermore, most stairwells do not provide sufficient head clearance to allow such a system to be utilized successfully.